• Healthy Fish
  • Life Cycle of Farmed Salmon
  • Salmon Breeding
  • Improved Feeds
  • Salmon Farm Management
  • Salmon Health Management
  • Infectious Salmon Anemia
  • Sea Lice
  • Aquaculture Bay Management Areas
• Quality Assured
  • Introduction
  • The Healthy Salmon Program
  • The Quality Management Program
  • Traceability Program
  • Farmed Salmon: Safety Approved
  • Farmed Salmon is Safe
  • Carotenoids: Essential for Normal Growth and Development
• Healthy Communities
  • Healthy Communities
• Healthy Industry
  • Healthy Industry
  • Canadian Production of Atlantic Salmon
  • New Brunswick Production
• Delicious/Nutritious
  • Why are so many people choosing farmed salmon?
  • Availability
  • Affordable
  • Consistent High Quality
  • Versatility
  • Convenient
  • Nutritious
  • Buying and Storing Farmed Salmon
  • Cooking Farmed Salmon
  • Cooking Method Determines Type of Seasoning
• Healthy Environment
  • Sustainability through Cooperation
  • Site Selection and Monitoring
  • Healthy Sites
  • Feed Monitoring
  • Improved Feed Digestibility Reduces Waste
  • Sustainable Management of Wild Populations
  • Fish Containment

Salmon Farmers Invest in Green Technology

Press Release Well Boat Will Reduce Therapeutant Use and Improve Sea Lice Management St George – The Ronja Carrier, chartered from the Norwegian company Solvtrans, will be in the Bay of Fundy for the next six months to help salmon farmers control sea lice on salmon farms. Salmon will be carefully pumped from the farm enclosure into the hold of the well boat where they will be immersed in a mixture of seawater and approved therapeutant to remove sea lice, a naturally occurring parasite. Fish are then returned to their enclosure. ....View More

NB Salmon Farmers Trigger Over Half A Billion Dollars of Economic Activity Across Canada

Press Release St. George, NB – Based on three key indicators – GDP, employment and labour income a new socio-economic report commissioned by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans demonstrates how the Canadian aquaculture industry generates over $2 billion annually for the national economy with New Brunswick triggering over half a billion dollars of economic activity across Canada. ....View More

Sea Lice Research Development Workshop Report Jan 2010

In 2009 NB DAA, in support of the aquaculture industry, applied to the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) for the Emergency Registration (ER) of two bath treatments, ALPHA MAX® and Salmosan®, as alternatives to SLICE® for sea lice treatment. ....View More

Salmon Health Management

With the active support of veterinarians and scientists, salmon farmers undertake many preventative measures to ensure the health of their salmon from hatching to harvest. The health of all breeding stock is carefully assessed before they are used as a source of eggs.

To provide further protection, salmon farmers seek to prevent disease-causing fish pathogens from entering their hatcheries.

As a requirement of the federal Fisheries Act, all transfers of salmon (such as the movement of smolts from hatchery to net cages) is subject to the strict protocols of the Introductions and Transfers Code. These protocols ensure that risks of disease transmission and environmental effects are minimal, manageable and acceptable. They provide a means to document the movement of fish and, together with on-farm record keeping, provide a comprehensive system of tracking.

Once the smolts begin their life in the ocean, they may encounter naturally occurring pathogenic organisms. Therefore, before being transported to the net cages, smolts are often individually injected with a vaccine to protect them against known pathogens. These vaccinations greatly reduce the incidence of disease in the net cages - and, as a result, have significantly reduced the use of antibiotics and other therapeutants.

In fact, farmed salmon commonly grow to maturity without any use of antibiotics during their lives. Antibiotic use on salmon farms is now far lower than that of any other agricultural industry in the world.

Despite all of the preventative measures, some salmon do occassionally become ill. A veterinarian will then examine the fish and determine the appropriate action to be taken. As with all farm animals, the veterinarian may sometimes decide that the illness requires antibiotic treatment - and will then prescribe a registered antibiotic that is approved by the Veterinary Drug Directorate of Health Canada. Prescribed antibiotic treatments are conducted in full accordance with the treatment protocol permitted by the Veterinary Drug Directorate.

Following antibiotic use, a strictly regulated withdrawal period and testing program ensures that no harvesting of the treated salmon occurs until the medication has cleared from their system. Salmon farms have the longest regulated antibiotic withdrawal period of any agricultural sector in the world. To ensure that withdrawal periods have been followed, New Brunswick salmon farmers developed the Healthy Salmon Program. This program requires that New Brunswick salmon farmers keep well documented records of the purchase, handling and use of all antibiotics. These documents offer assurance to fish processors that withdrawal times have been strictly adhered to for all salmon arriving at the processing plant.

Market ready New Brunswick farmed salmon is also routinely inspected by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (and, for US export, the Food and Drug Administration) to ensure that it meets government standards for the absence of antibiotic residue.